BRIDPORT Arts Centre staff and supporters have just 10 weeks to reach the fund-raising target of £400,000 to bring the South Street building into community ownership. A gala event at the arts centre on Friday 23rd October will help to boost the funds with an evening of poetry, music and good food.

Local support, whether by donations, sharing news of the campaign or offering a prize, has already brought many people together. The Come Together campaign is about much more than buying a building. It’s about protecting a place where artists, audiences and the whole community can come together to create, discover and be inspired for generations to come.

At the Gala, South West poet Beth Calverley, also known as the founder of The Poetry Machine, will talk with guests about what Bridport Arts Centre means to them and to the local community, and what the Come Together campaign is working to protect.

She will gather people’s thoughts and reflections on the place and its role in Bridport, then turn those conversations into a bespoke, original poem celebrating the Arts Centre and the people who care about it. Beth will read the poem at the close of the evening.

There will be live opera from Dorset-based singer Jon Valender of Destination Opera, which creates bold, unconventional opera experiences shaped by the place and the people. Jon’s performance will bring that spirit into the Arts Centre for the evening.

There will also be live music, time to explore the new exhibition Flax Uncovered in BAC’s Allsop Gallery – a community-led project exploring the role of flax in Bridport’s history – and enjoy a special cocktail menu curated by Dark Bear.

Once seated, guests will come together over sharing platters and two courses, and while they dine, the silent auction will take its final bids. Cristian Beadman, head of valuations at Bearnes Hampton & Littlewood and familiar to many from BBC Antiques Roadshow, will lead a special in-house auction just for guests in the room. Bearnes Hampton & Littlewood regularly hold valuation events at the Arts Centre.

Photograph of Beth Calverley and The Poetry Machine by Amanda Thomas